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Psychoanalysis, Postcolonialism, Islam
COM. LIT. /ARABIC M288: MODERN ARAB THOUGHT
SPRING 2015. ROOM: HUM 348. TIME: M 3:15-6 PM Prof. Nouri Gana
Office: Humanities 356 Office Hrs.: M 6-7 pm & R 5-6pm E-mail:
[email protected] Course desCription:
Like it or not, the Oedipus complex is far from coming into
being among Negroesit would be relatively easy for me to show that
in the French Antilles 97 percent of the families cannot produce
one Oedipal neurosis. This incapacity is one on which we heartily
congratulate ourselves. (Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks)
Regardless of whether Fanon is right or wrong about the
existence of the Oedipus complex in the Antilles, his trenchant
dismissal of one of the foundational premises of psychoanalysis
bespeaks a problematic relationship between psychoanalysis and
non-European cultures and societies. Psychoanalysis emerged in
Europe at the height of Europes colonial adventure in Africa, Asia
and elsewhere in the world (note, for instance, that by the time
Freud was developing the Oedipus complex in Totem and Taboo, almost
nine-tenths of the worlds landmass had been either colonized,
settled, or controlled by European powers). But, while
psychoanalysis and colonialism share a long and fraught history
that ranges from complicity and collaboration during colonization
to conflict and confrontation during decolonization, psychoanalysis
and religionIslam, in particularhave entertained and maintained a
history of mutual exclusion and ignorance. The recent upsurge of
writings (especially in French) on Islam from a psychoanalytic
perspective, however, does suggest a thaw in the historically
contentious relations between psychoanalysis and Islam. The
question here, though, is not so much whether Islam is
psychoanalyzable (notwithstanding its symbolic differentials to the
squarely European exotic science), but whether it has become the
object or objective of ideologically and politically driven
analytical methods, not unlike the ones that were used in the
colonies to exonerate racism and colonialism.
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2 If so, how can a genuine worlding of psychoanalysis take
place? And how can Islam, postcolonialism and critical race theory
help expose the provincial premises/universal pretentions of
psychoanalysis and simultaneously expand its insights to
non-European cultures by generating culturally specific tools of
analysis? This seminar will engage these and other related
questions in an attempt to think theoretically (i.e.,
comparatively) about how best to approach in tandem the
triptychpsychoanalysis, postcolonialism, and Islam. We will read
classic and recent texts that range from Freuds Totem and Taboo,
Mannonis Prospero and Caliban, Lacans The Triumph of Religion and
Fanons Black Skin, White Masks to Kristevas This incredible Need to
Believe and Fethi Benslemas Psychoanalysis and the Challenge of
Islam. Assignments And evAluAtion: Attendance and participation 20%
One oral presentation/short paper 30% Final paper (due June 12)
50%
guidelines:
Attendance and participation: Active and thoughtful
participation on a regular basis is required. Absences will not be
tolerated unless for evident and documented health emergencies.
With two absences youre automatically disqualified for the 20% on
attendance and participation. Each further absence will result in
the deduction of 10% of your final score. One oral
presentation/short paper One oral presentation on an
assigned/chosen text (15-20 min). The presentation may consist of a
preliminary analysis of the scheduled reading(s) for the week or a
close reading of one or two issues of potential critical and
theoretical interest. Organizing the presentation around a
problematic or a conceptual issue or a set of issues is much
recommended. Please avoid generic commentaries and try to use your
presentation as an opportunity to build toward a major thesis or
argument that will be thoroughly developed later and integrated
into the final paper (see below). Each presenter should prepare an
outline of his or her presentation and make a sufficient number of
copies to be distributed in class. Each presentation has to be
written and submitted as a short paper (no less than 7 pages), with
a thematic title, one week after the presentation. Final paper (due
June 12, 5pm): Extensive research paper (no less than 17 pages/5000
words for Grads & 11 pages/3000 words for undergrads) that
expands the argument on which you made your presentation and wrote
your short paper. You may if you wish choose another topic of
focus. Feel free to pair comparatively two works together if you
think it is indispensable to an argument youre trying to elaborate.
You are encouraged to meet with me during my office hours to
discuss the topic and theoretical scope, as well as the methodology
of your final paper. Please make sure you make an appointment well
ahead of the end of the
Please note that part of the required material will be uploaded
to the course webpage. Some of the required and optional texts are
available in the UCLA bookstore. Please note that all writing
assignments are to be submitted using Standard English, black ink,
12 pt. Times New Roman font, double spacing, and your name
attached. A title is required for your short paper and another one
for your final paper. Please note also that no extensions will be
granted.
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3 quarter so that you give yourself enough time to work on your
paper and submit it by email or to me personally during office
hours on June 12 (3-5pm). Meanwhile, I hope to be able to offer
extensive and helpful feedback on your short paper. Please make
full use of the further readings section in the schedule (see
below) for your research paper. Weekly sChedule March 30: Week 1:
Primal Crime, Myth of Origins Introduction and scope Sigmund Freud,
Totem and Taboo (1913) April 6: Week 2: Oedipus Complex (& Judr
Complex) Freud, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego (1921)
Jacques Lacan, Aggressiveness in Psychoanalysis (1948) Mikkel
Borch-Jacobsen, The Oedipus Problem in Freud and Lacan Abdelwaheb
Bouhdiba, In the Kingdom of the Mothers (on the Judr Complex)
----further readings---- - Freud, The Dissolution of the Oedipus
Complex (1924) - Freud, Some Psychical Consequences of the
Anatomical Distinction between the Sexes (1925) - Lacan, Beyond the
Oedipus Complex (from The Other Side of Psychoanalysis)
April 13: Week 3: Dependency Complex (& Voluntary Servitude)
Octave Mannoni, Prospero and Caliban: The Psychology of
Colonization Octave Mannoni, Decolonization of Myself Moustapha
Safouan, Why Are The Arabs Not Free: The Politics of Writing
(excerpts)
----further readings---- - Roberto Fernndez Retamar, Caliban and
Other Essays (excerpts) - Emily Apter, Character Assassination
(from Continental Drift) - Christopher Lane, Psychoanalysis and
Colonialism Redux April 20: Week 4: Race Mutters Frantz Fanon,
Black Skin, White Masks Hamid Dabashi, Brown Skin, White Masks
(esp. chapters 1 & 2)
----further readings---- - Hortense J. Spillers, All the Things
You Could be by Now, If Sigmund Freuds Wife Was Your Mother -
Franoise Vergs, To Cure and to Free: The Fanonian Project of
Decolonized Psychiatry - Ranjana Khanna, Colonial Melancholy (from
Dark Continents)
April 27: Week 5: Founder, Outsider: Trauma & the Colonial
Present Freud, Moses & Monotheism Said, Freud and the
Non-European
----further readings---- - Freud, The Moses of Michelangelo -
Lacan, The Triumph of Religion (excerpts) - Abdelkebir Khatibi,
Frontiers: Between Psychoanalysis and Islam - Gayatri C. Spivak,
Psychoanalysis in Left Field and Fieldworking: Examples to Fit the
Title
May 4: Week 6: Is Islam Psychoanalyzable? Fethi Benslama,
Psychoanalysis and the Challenge of Islam
----further readings---- - Kristeva, This Incredible Need to
Believe (excerpts)
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- Gohar Homayounpour, Doing Psychoanalysis in Tehran (excerpts)
- Malik B. Badri, The Dilemma of Muslim Psychologists (excerpts) -
Omnia El Shakry, The Arabic Freud: The Unconscious and the Modern
Subject
May 11: Week 7: Fundamentalism & Liberalism: Trials &
Denials Benslama, Dying for Justice & Of a Renunciation of the
Father & Dialogue (in Umbra special issue) Moustapha Safouan,
Five Years of Psychoanalysis in Cairo (in Umbra special issue)
Joseph A. Massad, Islam in Liberalism (esp. chaps 4 & 5)
----further readings----all in Umbra special issue - Stefania
Pandolfo, Soul Choking: Maladies of the Soul, Islam & The
Ethics of Psychoanalysis - Alberto Toscano, Fanaticism as Fantasy:
Notes on Islam, Psychoanalysis and Political Philosophy - Joan
Copjec, The Censorship of Interiority May 18: Week 8: Secular
Modernity, Complicity & Critique Talal Asad, Conscripts of
Western Civilization David Scott, Refashioning Futures: Criticism
after Postcoloniality (esp. Intro., chaps 6, 8 & coda) David
Scott, Conscripts of Modernity: The Tragedy of Colonial
Enlightenment (excerpts)
----further readings-I---all in Is Critique Secular? - Talal
Asad, Free Speech, Blasphemy and Secular Criticism - Saba Mahmoud,
Religious Reason and Secular Affect: An Incommensurable Divide? -
Judith Butler, The Sensibility of Critique: Response to Asad and
Mahmoud ----further readings-II---all in The Politics of Truth -
Immanuel Kant, Was ist Aufklrung? - Michel Foucault, What is
Critique? - Michel Foucault, What is Enlightenment? - Judith
Butler, Critique, Dissent, Disciplinarity
May 25: Week 9 No Class. Memorial Day Holiday (Recommendation:
Read Deleuze & Guattaris Anti-Oedipus, esp. Parts II & III)
June 1: Week 10: Worlding/Provincializing Psychoanalysis Dipesh
Chakrabarty, Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and
Historical Difference (excerpts) Jacques Derrida, Geopsychoanalysis
and the rest of the world Elisabeth Roudinesco, The Geography of
Psychoanalysis
